Penny Thoma:  

Life Hello. I"m still alive and growing. I am a clinical social worker (LCSW). As a child of the 60's, I tuned in, dropped out, challenged authority, lost my shoes at Woodstock, lost my big brother in Viet Nam, married Fred Thoma, played my guitar, refused to conform, tried my best to change the world, had two beautiful children, loved them dearly, lost one to SIDS, lost Fred to his grief and addictions, found Penny and worked my way through the education system as a single mom with a beautiful little girl---by cleaning houses/ serving cocktails, and giving birth to a thesis-- we made it and I became an agent for social change. At the end of a long and winding road, I became the person I always wanted to be!! (And I learned first hand that it's better by far to BE the person you always wanted than to FIND the person you always wanted! I waited to remarry and have more children until I was sure I could earn enough money to support myself and my wonderful daughter on my own, because Fred vanished when she was 4 years old....as in ZERO child support, etc...I did remarry a kind and decent man and juggled 2 more of my own biological babies, two wonderful foster children with special needs, and helped raise two other beautiful children of a man I lived with between marriages. I am happy to say that all of them survived along with me. LOL. So many opportuniies to grow and to learn... Fred Thoma died in 1984. I believe the cause of death was "Too much sex, and drugs, and rock and roll." Like many of our generation, I assumed that those chapters of my life were closed, but I was never really out of the woods. Twenty years slid past, and in 2004 I became mysteriously fatigued and seemed to be more irritable, experienced constant small illnesses and seemed suddenly accident prone. I broke my shoulder in five places, t...Expand for more